When Coyt D. Hargus, deputy director of international affairs for the U.S. Air Combat Command, was invited to speak at his alma mater, Arkansas Tech University, as part of the Norman Lecture Series, he thought there must have been a mistake.

“I told my wife, I didn’t think I was supposed to come back,” Hargus joked as he opened his lecture, part of the Norman Lecture Series at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center on Tuesday night.

A 1986 graduate of Arkansas Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, Hargus explained when he was attending the university his philosophy was if he made a B in a class, he was trying too hard.

Since graduating, Hargus has served the United States in a variety of posts related to strategic intelligence and international affairs and has spent much of his career working on such projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Hargus related to the crowd of about 100 his take on the root cause of some of the unrest in MENA.

“When you look at what’s going on in Tunisia, in Syria, in Yemen and Jordan to a lesser degree — and Saudi Arabia, to a degree — and other places connected to that, you really have to wonder why,” Hargus said. “Why now? Why are all of these places seemingly becoming politically volatile at the same time?”

Hargus said a contributing factor is the United State’s and NATO’s policy has been inconsistent with every country in the region.

“Why do we militarily intervene with Libya and not somewhere else? Our policies are inconsistent,” Hargus said.

Hargus said he views it as a case of political evolution which can be charted through history. He compared the process to a pendulum.

“We have the same problem in our own politics,” Hargus said. “We have a problem. We have an issue, and then we overreact. Then eventually, we get tired of the overreaction and go back the other way. Eventually things become less radical and more normalized. More steady. More what they should be. More what they could have been if the reactions hadn’t been so significant.”

Hargus said a sense of nationalism swept throughout the MENA region and before the area could decide how it was going to evolve, there was a period of interference. He said two solutions arose to counter the interference, which led to the continuance of the pendulum effect.

“There was a political movement and a religious movement,” Hargus said. “In the early days, the political movement had the most power. The problem is we can do something about a political movement. If there was a political movement and it ticked off the French or the British or whomever, if they wanted to do something about it, they could. So the political movement typically got squashed. And that leaves the only other movement — the Islamic movement. You start to get these people with nationalist ideas, but the only place they could have them was in a protected atmosphere and the only place they were protected was a mosque.”

Hargus questioned what is different with recent coups compared to previous attempts at government takeover in the region.

“Across the Middle East right now, you have regimes that seem to have gone through successful coups,” he said. “It happened in Iran, too, but why did Iran fail and all of the others succeed? What’s the difference now? I think the answer is technology. How many of you tweet? Social media. You’re texting each other. You get a text that says, ‘Go to the store.’ That’s kind of what is happening. It’s a way of communicating that allowed the groups to coordinate themselves. Another element that is different now is video cameras. Every kid with a phone is now a reporter for the BBC. They have the Internet. ... You see these atrocities that may have made page five and a small paragraph about some people getting whacked or whatever and it never really raised any attention in the west and now there’s video of them lighting them up or whatever. So that drives the western world. That drives thought. That drives politics. ... The internet and video cameras are a game changer.”

Hargus said the difference was not a compelling figure in the area, but rather technology-enhanced communication.

“It’s not that now is the right time. It’s not that some George Washington figure is running around Northern Africa with great ideas,” he said. “That’s not what it’s all about. What it’s really about, I think, is the idea that the pendulum swung too far and people are getting tired of these thugs and with social media they are able to coordinate their movements and it’s swinging it the other way back. What we’re struggling with is ‘What’s next?’ and I don’t know what’s next.”

Hargus also spoke to the Russellville Downtown Rotary Club and the Russellville Lions Club on Tuesday and adressed the Russellville Kiwanis Club on Wednesday.

The Norman Lecture Series is made possible through donations from Arkansas Tech alumni Robert and Sandra Norman of Tulsa, Okla.